FOX News in the Cross-Hairs

The French have a name for it, “l’esprit de escalier,” which roughly translates to “wisdom of the staircase.” It’s that brilliant idea that pops into your head as you’re heading up the stairs when the party’s over; the brilliant retort you wish you had thought of a minute earlier when you were downstairs with your guests. Boy, you would have looked smart if only you had thought of it then.

I had a “wisdom of the staircase” moment myself, the other day, right after I finished talking to Bill O’Reilly on FOX. Bill had asked me about the Shirely Sherrod mess. First I said that Andrew Breitbart, the conservative gadfly who released that now infamous tape, owed Ms. Sherrod – and all of us – an apology for putting everyone through a whole bunch of totally unnecessary turmoil, over race no less.

But then I went a step further and said that Ms. Sherrod also had some apologizing to do. Breitbart had slimed her, now she was sliming all sorts of people, for no legitimate reason.

On those who opposed President Obama’s healthcare law, she said: “I haven’t seen such mean-spirited people as I have seen lately over this issue, healthcare. Some of the racism we thought was buried, didn’t it surface.”

So if you oppose ObamaCare, there’s a good chance you’re mean-spirited and racist?

On America’s general reaction to the president, she said that during the Bush years, “We didn’t do the stuff these Republicans are doing because [now] you have a black President.”

So if you oppose the president’s spending policies or his worldwide apology tour or just about anything else, it’s because he’s black?

I looked straight into the camera and spoke directly to Ms. Sherrod who I’m sure was not watching. Ms. Sherrod, I said, if a President Pelosi or a President Reid had carried out the same policies that President Obama has been carrying out, Americans wouldn’t like that president any more than they like this one.

Then as the segment was ending, Bill noted how savage the infighting had become between the so-called mainstream media and FOX. The MSM was calling FOX all sorts of names because FOX had run the Breitbart tape – early and often. The tape, as we all know by now, portrayed Ms. Sherrod as a bigot for telling an NAACP audience that years ago, when a white farmer asked for her help, she didn’t do all she could – simply because he was white. A day later it came out that during that very same speech Ms. Sherrod went on to say she had been wrong; that over time she came to understand that the real issue wasn’t about race at all – it was about poor people who needed help, no matter what the color of their skin.

Why, Bill wanted to know, was there so much venom aimed at FOX. I gave an easy to understand answer: because FOX is doing so well and the others aren’t. But then I had my “wisdom of the staircase” moment. A second after I went off the air, it hit me. The MSM hates FOX News because FOX represents a threat to their very existence.

Fox, they have come to understand, is no longer the small, up-and-coming operation it was ten years ago. This was no longer the FOX News that only a few “wild-eyed” conservatives watched. This was the new FOX News. All sorts of people were watching now, including lots of independents and even Democrats.

On FOX, they were getting stories that were getting little or no play on ABC, NBC, CBS or the New York Times. By watching FOX, as more and more Americans were doing, they learned all sorts of things – and a lot of those things didn’t do the Obama administration any good. Only 38 percent of independents were now supporting President Obama. A year earlier it was nearly 60 percent. What role was the dreaded FOX News Channel playing in this dangerous abandonment of the president?

A day after I was on with Bill, Bob Herbert, the New York Times columnist, wrote about “the wing nuts” at FOX. A day after that, Frank Rich, in his Sunday New York Times column wrote that, “Fox pumps racial rage into the media bloodstream 24/7.” Well, no it doesn’t. But Frank Rich is a bomb thrower of the first order so his heated nonsense should surprise no one.

Yes, Bill, I should have said, there is an awful lot of hatred aimed at FOX. And it is mainly because of fear. Fear has a way of spawning hatred. And the old media are afraid for good reason. They realize that they’re no longer the only game in town, that millions of Americans watch FOX News now – and for some insane reason as far as the media elite are concerned – actually like it. But the toughest news to swallow is that the boys and girls of the mainstream media realize that their best days are behind them – that is bitter medicine indeed — and that FOX has become as mainstream as Middle America, a place too many “mainstream” journalists know so little about.

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TOMMY FREEDOM

HEY BERNIE, MR B STILL FAILS TO BRAG ABOUT THE SUPER BOWL OBAMA INTERVIEW.
YOU WOULD THINK HE WOULD TALK ABOUT IT FOR A WEEK, IS HE COVERING
IT UP? KEEPING IT QUIET?? IS HE CONCERNED 68% OF VIEWERS DONT LIKE
OBAMA. I ALLEDGE BILL COLUDED WITH OBAMA, YOU PROMOTE OBAMA-CARE
ON YOUR TV SHOW & I WILL DO THE INTERVIEW & FIND FAVOR WITH YOU. A
BILL, SAYS ” WE THE PEOPLE ” BE DAMNED, IS OBAMA-CARE GOOD?
WHO CARES, I GOT THE INTERVIEW. WE CAN ADD, BILL 2+2=4

WITH BARACK INSANE OBAMA AT THE SUPER BOWL. WHAT A COINCIDENCE, OTHER NITE MR

B WENT NUTS ABOUT OBAMACARE, HOW GREAT IT IS, CANT REPEAL IT, CANT REPLACE IT.

HE WAS FRANTIC, HE WOULD SELL US OUT FOR AN INTERVIEW. YOU BET !

TOMMY FREEDOM

BERNIE, ANOTHER SECRET MEMO FOUND AT FOXY, ALLEGEDLY B O’REALLY OF THE BIG EGO
FACTOR IS TO CHANGE HIS NAME TO ” JUAN O’REALLY” BECAUSE HE AND ” WILLIE
JUAN” THINK & ACT THE SAME. BOTH LOVE OBAMA & OBUMMER-CARE, THEY ALWAYS
GIVE OBAMA A PASS. DONT WORRY IF OBAMACARE CAUSES U S BANKRUPTCY.
WHEN OBAMAS FCC PULLS THE PLUG ON FOXY, THEY MITE GET IT. REPEAL &
REPLACE WITH A PATRIOT, LAURA INGRAHAM.

TOMMY FREEDOM

ON THE ” BIG EGO FACTOR” OUR HOST, MR B, STARTED RANTING & RAVING AGAIN ABOUT
OBUMMER-CARE, HE SAID, CANT, WONT, COULDNT, WOULDNT, IMPOSSIBLE, SHOULDNT DO
ANYTHING, DICK TRIED TO REASON WITH HIM, THE BLOWHARD WOULDNT LISTEN. DEFUNDING
OR TAKING IT A PART WASNT CONSIDERED. MR B WAS A HARDHEAD, GOING ON & ON. I WAS
TOTALLY DISGUSTED. HE ACTED LIKE HE WAS NEAR THE EDGE. HIS EXCUSE WAS THERES A FEW GOOD PARTS, LIKE U.S. BANKRUPTCY? HE SHOULD BE CHEERING ON THE NEW
CONGRESS, POSITIVE IDEAS, LETS GO, DO THE JOB, WHAT WE GET NEGATIVE TRASH, THANKS, I SAY REPEAL & REPLACE WITH AN UPBEAT PATRIOT LAURA INGRAHAM !

TOMMY FREEDOM

SECRET MEMO DISCOVERED AT FOXY NEWS, MR B O’REALLY & JUAN WILLIAMS BRAINSTORMED ALL NITE LONG. THEY FINALLY CAME TO A GREAT DECISION TO BACK OBAMA-
DEATH CARE HEALTH CONTROL. THEY ALSO DECIDED TO LEAVE THE ARIZONA BORDER ALONE.
THEY BELEIVE ERIC HOLDER & GOV BREWER CAN DO IT. DO YOU WANT TO BUY 1O OF MY BOOKS???????

TOMMY FREEDOM

BERNIE, HERES A GREAT IDEA, TO KEEP CURRENT, THE HUGE EGO

FACTOR & CHUCKABEE COULD HAVE MICHAEL VICK, FOOTBALL

PLAYER/ DOG LOVER ON AS SPECIAL STAR GUEST. HE COULD EXPLAIN

DOG FIGHTS & DISPLAY PERSONAL PHOTOS. GOTTA GET RATINGS !

TOMMY FREEDOM

HEY BERNIE, FUN NEWS, FOXY GUY, GOV HIKE MUCKABEE JUST

BOUGHT A $ 3 MILLION HOME, 8,024 SQ FT, THATS A BIG
HOUSE IN FLORIDA, LOOKS LIKE HE’S GOT THE BIG BUCKS.
DIDNT BUY THE HOUSE IN ARKANSA, HE DIDNT WANT TO
PAY HIS OWN HIGH TAXES. SURE, DONT BE FOOLED HE
LOVES THE OBAMOS, HES A BIG LIBERAL, MISSOURI
TEA PARTIES WONT FAVOR HIM. HE ALSO HAS
QUESTIONABLE CHARACTERS ON HIS LITTLE TV SHOW.

ON FOXY, CURSE-TIN POWERLESS WAS DEFENDING BARRY SNEAKING
DEATH PANELS BACK INTO OBUMMERCARE, SHE SAID IT WAS FINE. BUT
YOU CAN BET SHES SCARED OF BEING KILLED BY GLOBAL WARMING. SHE
GOES TO DEM HQ GETS A TALKING POINTS DOWNLOAD, THEN OFF TO TV
TO REPEAT THE DEM SPEECH PROGRAM BEFORE IT FADES.

TOMMY FREEDOM

STORIES FOXY NEWS WONT REPORT,

POINT OUT HIGHER GAS PRICES MAY HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH WH
OIL WELL SHUTDOWNS. 2) WH CONSIDERING FEDERAL MOLESTATION AT
SHOPPING MALLS & PUBLIC PLACES ( AIRPORT SECURITY POLICE STATE
WONT CHECK WILLIE JUAN MAY BELONG TO RADICAL FRONT GROUP.
IF REP D. ISSA DOES A GOOD JOB, IT WILL BE REPUB VS J. BIDEN

Bob Hadley

“I’m NOT in the politics business, I’m in the ratings business.” – Roger Ailes

“If there were no ratings, there’d be no God.” – Bill O’Reilly*

*O’Reilly said this tongue-in-cheek as a response to a prominent British atheist (not Hitchens, but the other one) criticizing O’Reilly’s emoting for the sake of ratings.

Bernie,

First, certain members on the Left sometimes make the serious mistake of playing the race card, and other tactics of personal destruction, instead of undertaking the job of careful, serious and non-sensational analysis. Much the same right-wing noise machine that seeks to take-down Obama was trying to take-down Clinton from the moment he asumed office in 1993. These members of the Left forget, or don’t seem to realize, that their counter-parts on the Right exhibit more skill at the politics of personal destruction and they exhibit less shame. These members of the Right are also better at playing the victim at any slight, real or otherwise, thereby diverting attention from real issues. As one Republican strategist revealingly put it: “You’ve got an essay, we’ve got a bumper sticker.” As my high school Expository Writing teacher wrote on one of my compositions: “People instinctively avoid the pains of logical thought.”

On the other hand, my experience growing up in Hawaii sheds light on a contrary and instructive set of phenomena. Here, the majority of the population is non-white and possibly of mixed race. In Hawaii, the established dominant culture is flavored with an island style or “local style.” I have talked to countless recent caucasian arrivals from the mainland (no more than about 5 years of living here) who are hyper sensitive to being discriminated against or maltreated because of their race. They are quick to complain about the purported racial discrimination they face. For example, if the clerk at the local grocery store or bank is not gracious or, sometimes, apparently in a bad mood they will often attribute it to a racial animus.

Thre is some animus here in many circles here against Caucasians, as there is also animus against other racial groups (e.g. Japanese), but this animus is too often over-stated and imagined. I know this because I am caucasian, and I know when someone is exhibiting racial animus towards me.

These recently arrived caucasians I am referring to are generally politically conservative. Although I have no specific knowledge of this, they are generally the type who would join you in your unrelenting tirade against liberals who see racial bias at every turn. My sense is that if you were to live here you would over-react to racial animus here and you would often exaggerate and often see “white racism,” sometimes real, sometimes imagined. The liberal types of recent caucasian mainland arrivals generally try to adopt the “local style,” often over-doing it. A lot of recent non-white arrivals here complain of “local prejudice.”

Warning: here, you have to keep two competing thoughts in mind at the same time. Is racial animus/discrimation ever justified? No, of course not. It is digusting! Is all racial animus equally damaging? Noooooooo. Blacks on the mainland have a history of brutal, wide ranging and systemic oppression and disinfrancisement. Whites, here in Hawaii and on the mainland, have no such history. Again, mistreatment because of race, any race, is disgusting. But let’s keep our perspective.

As to the “attacks” on FNC, let me first say that when criticism is aimed at FNC you see it as hateful and venomous. Have you bothered to read your barage of barbed critcism at the so-called MSM? Your criticism is much more cutting and loaded with sarcasm than most of the critcism I’ve seen regarding FNC. Are you hateful and venomous?

Although some criticism of FNC is over-the-top, much of it exposes FNC as having a distinct political bias. Fox is apparently aiming for a certain demographic, or set of demographics, that this politics attracts–the conservative, anti-government types and the types who are attracted by FNC sexing-up its broadcasts (and FNC has a lot of company in sexing-up its broadcasts). Of course, FNC’s bias is mixed in with so hard news and serious analysis. Here, Meghan Kelley’s show and Sheppard Smith may be the best examples of “fair and balanced.”

There are tons of examples of FNC’s political bias, which usually takes the form of incomplete reporting and of cherry picking stories that make liberals look bad. I’ll give you only a few from O’Reilly’s show, which nonetheless does have some instructive and serious discussion, and in general from FNC.

From listening to all the rants on FNC and O’Relly, I’d think the entire stimulus package was spending and that taxes under Obama were generally increased. Of course, you can’t deny that the so-called stimulus package was smaller than many of the Left wanted and that more than one-third of it was actually tax cuts. You also cannot deny that taxes under Obama are lower for about 95% of taxpayers than under GW Bush.

I recently had a long, painful talk with my Mom who is educated and intelligent but who unfortunately exclusively watches FNC with her new, conservative husband. She was afraid her meager estate would be highly taxed after her death if the Bush tax cuts expired. After repeatedly telling her that, even before the Bush tax cuts, the estate tax had a high deduction, i.e. only millionaires would be subject to the tax on the amount over and above the deduction, she finally agreed to talk to a good CPA who does not have an axe to grind.

From the way O’Reilly recently ranted about George Soros going to the White House 4 times I would have thought Soros went there for strategy sessions with Obama if I didn’t know better. On a later show and toward the end (as I recall), O’Reilly clarified that Soros met with Obama’s aides, not Obama himself. OK, so Soros was having strategy sessions with Obama’s aides? To my knowledge O’Reilly never addressed the purposes for Soros’ visits. Did he attend some function? Did he come to see McCartney perform and make that quip that provoked your ire? Did he come to attend a lecture or a talk? Did an Obama aide invite him to try to persuade him to contribute to a non-partisan charity (e.g. the aide’s child’s Boy Scout troup)? If so, BFD right? I still do not know why Soros went to the White House. And i still don’t know if O’Reilly knows why Soros went to the White House.

Leading up to the 2010 Deleware senatorial election, O’Reilly repeatedly said that Chris Coons is an avowed Marxist. If I wasn’t leery I would have thought that Chris Coons had recently affirmed, on at least one occasion, that he is a Marxist. The closest thing to a confirmation of this was an article that Coons wrote decades ago as a college student entitled “The Making of a Bearded Marxist,” a title with which he probably had nothing to do. The article was about how Coons had started to be critical of the U. S. after a stint in Africa. In the article Coons referred to a joke that Africa took clean-cut college students from the U. S. and transformed them into bearded Marxists. As I recall, Coons also said that he was influenced by a Marxist professor there. But he also stated that he still believed “in America and her promise.” Unless I missed it, not once, not even decades ago while in college, has Coons professed to be a Marxist.

On the other hand, O’Reilly often decried the “abuse” heaped on Christine O’Donnell. He never showed the most incriminating tape of O’Donnell. He told Bill Mahr on Real Time that this was because others had piled on O”Donnel enough. But if O’Donnel was a liberal democrat in the race, he would gladly have piled on her.

O’Reilly has ranted about how we should listen to commanders “on the ground” for our conduct in the war against terror. He has also harshly criticized Eric Holder for favoring civilian trials for some detained terrorists and has also repeatedly ranted against critics of waterboarding. O’Reilly has even had some segments where he asks his guests/FNC analysts why Holder would possibly take his position on civilian trials, especially in light of the opinion polls.

I have heard several reports that General Petraus, not only a commander “on the ground” but someone O’Reilly has praised, favors civilian trials for detained terrorists and opposes waterboarding. That I have never heard O’Reilly address this, leads me to suspect that these reports are true. And O’Reilly always lauded GW Bush for not listening to opinion polls in conducting the Iraq war and the war on terror.

On one segment on his show, O’Reilly vehemently complained that, during a certain time period, he could find only 2 positive reports on the Tea Party, claiming this to be even more evidence of how biased the main stream news media is AGAINST the Tea Party. His demeanor and his words would lead an unsuspecting viewer to believe that most of the main stream medias’ reporting on the Tea Party during this period was negative. But he subtly avoided saying how many of these reports were negative. He did not even define a positive report.

Much of the criticism of FNC is factual and deserved.

TOMMY FREEDOM

DOUBLE x CROSS, OUR MAN ON FOXY NEWS WENT ON RADIO, SIDED

WITH MICHELLE O AGAINST GOV PALIN REGARDING ON CHILD NUTRITION

ACT. HE MUST LIKE COERSION, WE DONT, HE SHOULD LOSE SOME LBS.

HE MUST BE RUNNING AS A DEM, GOV MIKE WONT GET TEA PARTY VOTE, WE STAND WITH SARAH !!!

” WE THE PEOPLE” WOULD LIKE TO THANK FOXY
NEWS FOR BRINGING THESE FINE PEOPLE INTO
OUR LIVING ROOM. CANT THEY FIND AN HONEST
GUEST. THEY TREAT THEM LIKE CELEBRITIES. THEY
SURE ARE HARD UP ! ! !

TOMMY FREEDOM

BERNIE, OBAMA MAY GO AFTER FOX, BUT HE SHOULD LEAVE THE

MR B’S BIG EGO FACTOR ALONE, MR B HAS BEEN GIVING

OBAMO & ADMIN A PASS FOR THE LAST 2 YEARS.

Nicholas

Mr. Goldberg, I read your column and I think something should be pointed out. You cannot claim the title “media elite” for another group when Fox News is touted as the most-watched news organization in America. By definition of that statement, Fox News is the elite and the rest are trying to tear away the company’s market share.

Shall we call a spade a spade Mr. Goldberg? While I enjoy your work on Real Sports, your political commentary leaves something to be desired. I have to ask this question, having watched more than my fair share of Fox News pundits during the Bush Administration, where was the moral outrage over the gutting of American civil liberties through such reactionary measures as the Patriot Act?

The fact is that you, Fox News, MSNBC, and just about all of the mainstream elite media outlets are in the business of news, not the news business. The news companies now care only about increasing their viewership, not telling a fair and balanced story. When conservative media demonizes the liberal half and the liberal media do the same to the conservative half, you contribute to the polarization and decidedly childish view that everything is black and white. It is the “us vs. them” mentality that groups like Fox News and MSNBC propagate that has led to the fracturing of our American Democratic system, not to mention the fact that almost all news organizations now bow their heads to the almighty altar of crass corporate interests who help pay their salaries. You and all those of your ilk, the Bill O’Reilly’s, Shawn Hannity’s, Keith Olbermann’s, and Tucker Carlson’s, are part of the problem. Unfortunately, I don’t see a solution. And maybe that’s the damnedest shame of the whole story.

stmichrick

Nicholas, you silly man;

Maybe you can name two people (not five or six) whose civil rights have been violated on account of the Patriot Act. Overseas terrorists don’t count.

To equate the news staff and product of Fox News with Olbermann and Maddow is sophistry and you know it. Hannity and O’Reilly are commentary/entertainment programs

Michael Harris

Bernie, The strong negative feelings toward President Obama mirror those against President Bush. since the venon aimed at W was obviously not racist (except for maybe the fringe like the New Black Panther Party), why is the opposition to Obama rascist? The answer is easy. Playing the race csrd makes the target defensive and look guilty.

Perry

Bernie, I have been watching this all week. Everyone on this forum crying racism on the right and left. I’m sure you have heard you can’t see the forest for the trees.Here’s what I see, and is obvious to me. These video’s were shot in a NAACP meeting. Someone in the NAACP had to be the leak of the video’s. It was done with the intention of bringing the race card back to the front page of the news. Now she is going to sue Brietbart. I believe her or her husband had something to do with this, or someone close to them.

CCNV

Appears she has a pattern of filing lawsuits. Doubt she would ever win except she plays the race card. And in this ‘politically correct’ environment, judges are afraid of repercussions. (I’m sure she makes enough from previous lawsuits that she doesn’t need to work.) It’s extremely hard to feel sorry for someone like this, not to mention point and laugh at her. Uh oh…I might get a lawsuit filed against me for “blogging”!

Perry

I agree, she set this in motion. First by giving the speech, and second, by having it video taped, and third by having someone in the naacp release it.
I don’t feel sorry for her at all! She is an opportunist!!! CCNV, your right, we may be skating on thin ice.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

What the problem is, Bernie? You’re a whiny little cuss, aren’t you? Is what you’re trying to say is that there really is a Left Wing cabal out there? SO WHAT? You have WSJ/Rush/ Faux/Drugde/Breibart/Newsmax/Weakly Standard…etc. And they all march in lockstep with the right wing message.

john marzan

Sherrod’s handlers really wanted to go after FOXNEWS. they failed. Andrew breitbart is the consolation prize. I think Sherrod is just a pawn in Obama’s smart people and media’s efforts to start a “race war” with FOX by blaming her firing on them. Andrew Breitbart was set up, IMO.

1) when breitbart released the video, the WH immediately fired Sherrod without doing any investigation. My suspicion is that those who fired her knew she’s innocent but still removed her anyway to make it a big story in the MSM. Would have been a bigger story if FOXNEWS aired the video BEFORE she was fired.

2) Why do i think the original intent was to set up FOXNEWS? the person who fired sherrod told her they that had to fire her because foxnews was going after her specifically glenn beck. so this explains why ms. sherrod lately has been blaming FOXNEWS for racism and getting her fired. even though she’s wrong on the facts. Ms. Sherrod was supposed to appear on megyn kelly’s show but backed off, and went to CNN to tell her side of the story. Who told ms. sherrod to back out of the scheduled interview? The same handlers who have been coaching her to blame foxnews?

3)

Anne C

The saying goes “hurting people hurt other people”. Hurt and fear brings out the worst in a lot of people so they do all they can to bring hurt, blame and damage on others. Obama is hurting in the polls so he blames Bush for everything that is wrong, etc. Eventually those throwing the stones will only bury themselves in shame (or worst). While attending a business meeting a wise boss told me “just listen, the ones doing the most talking are the ones that know the least”. How true it was then and remains true today.

http://www.ramblinroseaz.blogspot.com Teresa

I find it hard to imagine that Mrs. Sherrod who became “good friends” with the white farmer would talk in such a demeaning manner about him to the group. Perhaps if she had some lessons in tact this whole story would have been different.

http://blog.cyberquill.com Cyberquill

Interesting. I’ve always associated esprit d’escalier with going downstairs on my way to exiting a building, not going upstairs in my own house.

Tim Ned

I wonder if Ms. Sherrod would have been fired if the White House heard the story was about to break on Olbermann? Well anyways I agree with Bernies comments. I do believe that the MSM is afraid of Fox but I don’t believe it has anything to do with revenues or market share. I believe it is all about credibility and power. When the White House fires an employee based upon a video that was to appear on Fox, well somewhere in history Fox has earned that credibility or power to force the White House to react this way. Even when most can agree the video was out of context.

Jeff

The funny thing is, i listen to the radio all day and almost never watch TV except sometimes listen to FNC over Sirius Radio to listen to O’Reilly, Hannity, Greta and i never heard a damn thing about this Sherrod story on the hourly radio news until the story turned(i’m guessing it was ABC or CNN radio)…And then i heard Gergen blathering on about Breitbart at the top of every hour for the next 12 hours or so….Apparently it wasn’t newsworthy when the left’s ox is gored but it damn sure changed fast when the right could be damaged by it….

also, not surprisingly i have never heard a peep about the Journo-list scandal on the radio news, heard very little if anything about the Climategate scandal, and now i suspect that the Wikileaks may have been released right after the revelations that obama lied about no involvement in the Lockerbie murderers release – so that instead of obama +lockerbie being the focal point of the Sunday night and Monday morning radio shows, it was wikileaks instead…and from what i hear wikileaks will slowly be dribbling out the info over the summer, which is great for obama because the obliging lefty press will be happy to blow it out of proportion so they can take the focus off of obama and the poor economy, unemployment stats, etc – all summer long…its perfect, as though scripted by obama’s hollywood advisors……wikileaks appears to be a leftist group and obama’s name was scrubbed from the first batch of documents released so it seems the blame will be laid at the feet of the bush admin for all of this and at the same time possibly give obama a reason to please his leftist base and pull out of Afghanistan….the lockerbie revelations show that we are being played like a fiddle by a two-faced, lying admin that says one thing and does another along with their stooges in the MSM…

The only time I have ever watched FOX for longer than a second is when Hannity drilled Rod Blagojevich. Hannity absolutely owned that lying scum bag. He may be over the top at times, but Hannity will always tell it like it is and is not afraid to criticize anyone about anything. Bill’s elitist interuptions are annoying and as funny as he is, it is hard to watch too much of the self-described, “rodeo clown” Glenn Beck. It’s a sad day when our President has a lot on his plate and nothing to discuss except his opposition. Hopefully the next two and a half years go by quickly.

Terry Walbert

I’ve almost forgotten what the main stream media is like because I watch and read them so infrequently.

As far as their criticism of Fox is concerned, I am reminded of the immortal words of W.C. Fields, “Screw ‘em.”

http://hemingwayreport.blogspot.com/ MerchantofVenom

There is a lot more to this story then meets the eye. The White House is terrified of Glenn Beck.

First of all if you listen to the whole video the white farmer according to her acted like he was “superior” to her. The gist of what I got out of the video was she was kind of bragging to the NAACP how she screwed a White guy. At the time I didn’t know this took place over 20 years ago and she had become friends with White farmer.

Sherrod may be the only official ever dismissed because of the fear that Fox host Glenn Beck might go after her. Sherrod says Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her Monday to say “do it, because you’re going to be on ‘Glenn Beck’ tonight.” Again she stated… The White House… called her 3 times while she was driving her car. The third time…”pull over and resign!”

Naturally…The White House… made Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack fire her so he could take the fall.

O’Reilly apologized to her and Beck never ran any story except to support her.

Then she says this:

Sherrod ripped Fox in an interview with Media Matters, saying the network would “love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person.”

NAACP said they were snookered by FOX. They must depend on FOX to do the investigative work for them because their to freaking lazy to do it themselves!

“If a house is burned to the ground, you can whine about the firefighters or criticize the building material — but first you blame the guy who started the fire, right?”

He starts out ok but totally misses the real point.

So you have ask yourself this:

1. Who shot the video and sent it to Breitbart?
2. How many White people attend a NAACP meeting?

The Patriot

You have to ask yourself why they’re scared of someone who basically gives history lessons for an hour on his show.

It’s not that hard to figure out.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

Beck won’t lay off until Obama is out of office and/or assassinated. And he’s instantly going to stop objecting to “Big Government” and go back to insisting that criticizing the president is treason the second we have another Republican president.

http://hemingwayreport.blogspot.com/ MerchantofVenom

Whether or not you go to the beach you should apply Preparation H. Please don’t ask why. Everyone already knows.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

Venom, For your really scummy remark about me, I can only wish for you quick demise, drowning in a lake as your mother runs barking along the shore.

http://hemingwayreport.blogspot.com/ MerchantofVenom

Gee I was kinda hoping the Preparation H was going to work. It’s supposed to make hemorrhoids like you disappear

You have been rambling around this website like a cockroach. It’s about time someone stepped on you. Media Matters is where you belong. Slime likes to hang with slime.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

Venon, I made you cry. Boo hoo!

http://hemingwayreport.blogspot.com/ MerchantofVenom

Well… I wouldn’t say touche’. You have proved one thing. You have added partisanship, subtracted pleasure, divided attention, and multiply ignorance ten fold. Oh Wil… you son-of a -gun everyone just loves you!

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

Well Venon, I really think the sun shines out of your arse. You’re living proof that even a turd can be polished. Good day!

CCNV

Hey, Wil! I think you like me!! Paraphrasing is very flattering!

Nicholas

And so goes the way of political discourse. Not only can most people not have anything close to reasonable, respectful discourse on a given topic, they also cannot even act like reasonable, respectful adults as well.

Soul

After seeing heated attacks against Fox News on the internet chat boards for years, I’ve thought that old cliche about shooting arrows to be true – the first to develop a product receives the most arrows.

http://orbis1@bellsouth.net Jan W.

Soul,
I agree wholeheartedly with your statement, as well as Mr. Goldberg’s opinion always!
The Lamestream Media has missed every important news story that has to do with President Obama for over 18 months, since before his term started because they are in his liberal pocket!! Fox News HAS to be put down by the LSM to discredit them. Even most “hard news journalists” slant liberal on other networks, and they refuse to say Fox News is fair, and that ANY opinion journalist has the right to opine, but Fox News is popular with all now because it is fair and balanced, and all see this now.

http://flintwales.co.uk Kenneth Taylor

“Lamestream Media” love it!

Bruce A.

Good one Bernie. Fox is number one and when you are number one in a competitive business you become a target. The success of Fox News is driving the lib nuts. They ratings tell the story, millions are watching Fox and turning there first for news. Fox is doing something right to be that successful.

Buz Chertok

MSM’S Bob Schiefer actually stated that he was unaware of the Black Panther’s disgusting menacing outside of a polling place in addition to one of their leader’s admonition to kill white babies etc.thereby proving that HE doesn’t watch Fox News because not one of the MSM showed it. You can bet that Bob Herbert, Frank Rich, Katie Couric, Brian Williams and the rest of the bigotted morons who populate the MSM write their snarky criticisms without watching Fox either. They get THEIR news from their own exclusionary sources thereby causing them to be uninformed. They frankly look like the fools that they are and Fox’s ever escalating ratings are the result.

Jeff

and Charlie Gibson claimed he had heard nothing about ACORN….the difference is i actually believe Bob Schieffer because while he’s a lefty i think he is at least an honest man….Charlie Gibson flat out lied…

Larry S.

As an independent, I enjoy Fox, but they have totally taken their eye off the ball this summer. The Black Panther stuff is silly pandering – I wish they would just drop it. O’Reilly’s questioning Sherord’s legitimacy due to the Hatch Act is desperate and stupid.

They are getting meaner to guests with opposing views, my guess is because everyone’s gunning for a better timeslot. All they talk about lately is race and how great they are. They are the most self-obesessed news division in the history of journalism. could you imagine if katie couric brought up her Palin interview with such self congratulation as often as o’reilly does with barney frank?

There’s a lot of intelligent independents and conservatives out there and none of them are talking about the Black Panther party.

Jeff

katie couric is a clown..

http://www.blurb.com/books/1435545 Dan Farfan

Wouldn’t it be grand if the “lesson learned” was that we all stopped accepting from the media (in all its forms, of all its flavors):

1) answers without the question
2) partial thoughts, paragraphs and sentences
3) quotes without links to the original source
4) articles, stories, posts, audio clips and video footage without time stamps
5) analysis without logic
6) assertions pretending to be conclusions
7) predictions pretending to be facts
8) opinions pretending to be facts
9) cliches pretending to be evidence
10) name calling pretending to be humor

Every time anyone slings any of those, they are attempting to manipulate their audience in concert with their own agenda (and too often succeeding). In this case, even the getters got got.

But what’s more troubling to me is not that my lessons learned notion would be a concept so foreign to the folks who we need to implement the entire list that it would be dismissed out of hand. That doesn’t surprise me. The troubling part is that the getters getting got by their own techniques suggests that they apply these techniques with such casual reflex that they no longer consider them tools of fallacious persuasion. It’s just what they do and how they do it! So their own filter has atrophied from lack of use.

If that’s the case, that’s more troubling than this one incident, in my opinion.

Dan
– “The Next 10 Amendments”

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

Dan, The efficacy of the right-wing noise machine is really a sight to behold.

http://www.blurb.com/books/1435545 Dan in Phx

“A day after that, Frank Rich, in his Sunday New York Times column wrote that, ‘Fox pumps racial rage into the media bloodstream 24/7.’

If exaggeration were energy, we’d no longer be dependent on foreign oil.

Good article, Bernie.

T

We had a discussion about this at www. neoneocon.com (see July 20th, “Yeah, so journalism is a vast left-wing conspiracy—so what else is new?”).

I think my comments bear repeating here.

7/20 4:24 pm
It has only been in the last decade or so, with the rise of the internet and (conservative) talk radio that there has been any counterbalance to the democrat leftist “main-stream” media. Even then, conservative media is unabashedly conservative, while the MSM has continued to cling to the facade of fairness.

And further at 7/21 2:30 pm
As I have said before, I am very excited about the long-term future of this country because I believe that we are seeing the left and leftist policies finally exposed for what they really are. The internet’s 24/7 information cycle is only helping to spread that exposure. The public dialogue has become rancorous because for the first time the one-party media no longer has a stranglehold on “reporting” what’s going on out there and the silent majority is starting to respond; and are they pissed.

Kristina L

Some of what I’ve heard about Sherrod makes it sound as if she or family has suffered at the hands of whites, so maybe her opinions aren’t too suprising. And if that’s correct, the fact that she was able to overcome this to help a white farmer, even if she seems to still see racism where there is none and seems hung up about race, well, that was an achivement. But one of the things shesaid that bothered me is this “it’s not about black vs. white, it’s rich vs. poor”. Why do these groups need to fight? When I divide the world into 2 groups, it’s nice people vs. jerks, and you can be any color or have whatever amount of money and be in either group. Maybe we should start thinking about the world that way instead.

http://consortiumnews.com/2010/033110.html Wil Burns

Now that it’s become clear that Shirley Sherrod isn’t a racist and was wrongly fired from her job at the USDA, intriguing new facts about her are surfacing. None is more interesting than one that sheds new light on her road from being someone who firmly believed in racial solidarity to the point of wanting to forgo aid to white farmers to someone who came to be concerned with the plight of poor farmers of all colors:

Sherrod’s father was shot to death by a white farmer.

One night in 1965, “her father, Hosie Miller, a black man and a deacon at Thankful Baptist Church [in rural Georgia], was shot to death by a white farmer in what ostensibly was a dispute over a few cows,” reports CNN. “The all-white grand jury didn’t bring charges against the shooter.” The then Shirley Miller was 17 at the time.

“That summer, when she and several other blacks went to the county courthouse to register to vote, the county sheriff blocked the door and even pushed her husband-to-be, Lester Sherrod, down the stairs,” CNN continues. “Activists used that incident to get a restraining order against the sheriff so blacks could register to vote, she said.”

On Tuesday, Shirely Sherrod was a name in a headline. Now that we’re getting to know her back story, which turns out to be painful and personal account of the Jim Crow South, the lesson she hoped to impart in her NAACP speech — the full version — is only more poignant.

Let me see, Wil, if I go back to the era of Reconstruction in the Old South, where Whites claimed to have suffered discrimination, rape, murder, mutilation,theft, and other crimes at the hands of newly liberated Blacks and their Carpetbagger allies, then I somehow have the right to be a bigot and a racist towards Blacks? Thanks Wil, you’ve just justified Jim Crow, lynchings, and the rest of the South’s thinking towards segregation of the races.
So Shirley Sherrod suffered as a child, boo hoo! Her father died and her husband got beat up, how awful, break out the Kleenex! And exactly who didn’t suffer in the past, the Chinese coolies building America’s railroads, the American Japanese in the internment camps, the Irish who, along with dogs, were barred from entering American stores?
The simple truth is that American Blacks largely view their life experiences through a lens of racial discrimination, even in the year 2010, when just about anything that can be done, including racial quotas in universities, affirmative action in business, special grants and loans to Black businesses, free welfare money, etc, to alleviate the history of racial discrimination, frankly has been done.
What hasn’t been done however is the rehabilitation of the Black Community by the Black Community, where abortion rates are still sky high, out of wedlock child birth an ongoing epidemic, high school dropout rates reaching as high as 50%, where drug and alcohol abuse and prostitution are endemic, and where Black on Black violence is simply out of control.
Everybody suffered in the past, Wil, Asians, Hispanics, Irishmen, Germans, Jews, and yet the only group still cashing in on their past suffering and using it to excuse their present failures are a large number of the leadership and sadly far too many members of the American Black Community.
But you Wil are the real bigot. Your soft or even non existant expectations of the American Black community are bigotry of the worst kind. For in your opinion the American Blacks cannot succeed unlike every other ethnic or racial group that came to America and did so.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

Kenny, So I guess we should stop talking about the Holocaust. It also happened a long long time ago.

CCNV

So did slavery, but you still have a chip on your shoulder.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

No, but I think you still do!

http://www.bigbureaucracy.com/ Ellie Velinska

Let’s hope that the more Mainstream FOX becomes – the less of the MSM mistake it will going to make.

It will be sad if FOX begins to cover the Republicans as blindly as the MSM covers the Democrats.

If FOX News stay fair and balanced – they will continue to build credibility.

http://www.photoshow.com/members/_c419de4a5b3d148/all Kitty Crouch

Andrew Breitbart’s stated objective was to show the racism within the NAACP, following their denunciation of the tea partiers as being racists. He did this by showing the audience’s positive reaction to Mrs. Sherrod’s admittedly racist comments regarding her white farmer client. If one watches the rest of the tape, one sees that this woman still expresses opinions based upon race and makes assumptions about whites which are demonstrably not true.
Particularly in light of the JournoList revelations, Fox News stands alone as the source of, yes, fair and balanced reporting. Andrew Breitbart is a warrior, and Bernard Goldberg is a brilliant iconoclast who is willing to take the arrows for speaking his mind.
It is time to stop opening the old wounds of racism, to heal our country and go on with one purpose, the strengthening and betterment of our nation.

Kitty, You’ll recall when the ACORN pimp hoax unraveled earlier this year, Breitbart suddenly claimed ignorance. Despite the fact that he’d used his Washington Times column in 2009 to push the phony pimp angle hard, this winter Breitbart wanted everyone to know he actually had no idea what was on the heavily edited ACORN tapes and that James O’Keefe had mislead him into thinking he’d walked into ACORN offices dressed as a pimp.

So despite the fact that Breitbart had championed the ACORN tapes for months and personally vouched for their contents (he’d told “the truth”), when the hoax crumbled Breitbart changed his tune and claimed he didn’t know what was on the discredited ACORN tapes because, oops, he’d been duped. Breitbart is a liar!

The Patriot

Looks to me like at least one person has decided to fight fire with fire. What’s wrong, Wil….don’t like your sides own tactics?

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

My side doesn’t kill doctors and blow up government buildings!

Stephen Shields

Your side has it’s head up it’s collective ass too.

CCNV

Wil,

Harry Reid is a LIAR too! Even tho I’m NOT a Sharron Angle fan, I would vote for her just to get rid of Reid. Reid’s campaign is airing TV ads out here about Angle’s comments to eliminate ‘Social Security’ and that it’s ‘not her job to create jobs’. These comments were taken completely out of context and are grossly misrepresented. Listen to the entire interview for yourself before you come to any conclusions. Oh wait, she’s not BLACK! That makes all the difference in the world to you, doesn’t it, Wil?? You must be very proud of Mr. Greene in SC…

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

Sharron Angle is a nut and you…well?

CCNV

You must have been neutered recently if that’s the best you can do.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

And you too, must have been neutered recently if that’s the best you can do.

CCNV

HAHAHA…Lame.

SalHansen

Good article Bernie; except I don’t think you went far enough in your analysis.

Frank Rich, the NAACP and the lamestream media elites are labeling Fox racist, (just like they’re doing with the Tea Parties), intentionally.

It’s a scheme we read about this past week coming out of the Progressive “JournoList” crowd… a tried and true Alinsky tactic: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it”.

What better way to polarize an individual, group or news organization, than to label them as ‘RACIST’?

It doesn’t matter if there is no evidence to substantiate the claim. The damage is done. Mission accomplished.

Dusty Rhodes

Totally accurate. Having stopped watching CBS News and their ilk in the 1980s, I’m glad every day that FOX News is on the air. The more they drive the elitists crazy, the more you know they must be doing something right.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

Dusty, Anyone who watches Fox news programming and believes that tripe, is being willingly manipulated and therfore woefully misinformed citizens.

Bruce A.

Wil, you watch Fox. It’s no sin. If you think it is, call it your dirty little secret.
Somthoing keeps bringing you back to the channel. Maybe you like the analysis.

http://mediamatters.org/ Wil Burns

I always watch a “train wreck”!

Bruce A.

Thanks for the laugh, I just choked on my coffee. If you like “train wrecks” then you may like watching auto racing & waiting for a crash. Seriously Wil, Fox’s rating are higher than everyone else. There is a reason, it’s just another product which more people happen to like including you. Fox usually thanks it viewers for watching, that includes you.

The Patriot

He gets paid to watch FOX news and report to his masters. Just like he gets paid to troll this and other websites.

Right Wil?

http://lillian-davis.blogspot.com/ Lily

I hate those “wisdom of the staircase” moments! I want to run back down and say it…but then I’d just look silly probably because by that time the guests are gone.

There are two points that I would like to touch on, first of all, the legacy media has always been derisive of things they don’t understand or don’t like or that don’t fit into their little box. The other two networks got snarky about Dan Rather during the Democrat National Convention in Chicago in 1968. Only later they sort of came around to his side. So it is no surprise that they are snarky and afraid of Fox News. Secondly, the NAACP had the tape of Sherrod and wouldn’t release it all, which leads me to question how the conservative blogger got any part of it. Was there a set up? Did they send it to him? Makes ya wonder.